Photos Sapiens in Living Color

When I write about color, I generally focus on color dynamics in architecture, fashion and the world of plants. But today, when the world seems so dark and foreboding, I'm focusing on color as the manifestation of light.

Did you realize that COLOR is the only energy in the entire universe that we can see? All humans embody that light and have the capacity to reflect light. We are photo sapiens, if you will.

We photo sapiens, cannot live without light, therefore, we cannot live without color. And we cannot live without each other.

I was reminded of this truth just before the coronavirus struck when I attended my first NIA dance class. Though I'd known about NIA for some ten years and love to dance, I'd resisted checking it out because I imagined that a NIA class would consist of vague, airy-fairy, 'ecstatic' gyrations. In my mind I saw a class filled with nerdy, middle-aged women fluttering around doing goofy Isadora Duncan moves.

I finally pushed myself to try a NIA class after I joined an athletic center earlier this year. NIA was among their class offerings.

To my surprise, I loved it.

The class was upbeat, challenging, and gave me a fabulous workout. Turns out, rather than a vague mix of movements, NIA is a combination of 52 precise movements drawn from jazz dance, modern dance, African dance, Tai Chi, Tae Kwon Do, Aikido, yoga, Alexander Technique and Feldenkrais Technique.

It was so much fun. I had entered class feeling a bit glum and ended it feeling, well, elated.

The last song that we danced to affected me deeply. The tune had a dynamic build, a catchy, danceable beat, and its lyrics were positive and absolutely compelling. After class, I asked the teacher the name of the song: GRATEFUL. I ran home, immediately googled it and discovered that a video had been made to accompany the song. It's called GRATEFUL: A Love Song to the World.

The GRATEFUL song/video brought tears to my eyes. If we all listened to GRATEFUL each morning, I'm certain the world would be a kinder place. Written and Performed by Nimesh "Nimo" Patel and Daniel Nahmod, here it is, a heartwarming example of photo sapiens dancing in radiant, living color: https://youtu.be/sO2o98Zpzg8

Make sure to watch the outtakes!